6 Brutal TV Scenes That Will Leave You Shocked

There was a time when TV was the meek little brother of cinema. A world where you could get away with some stuff, but not nearly as much as you could get away with on film. It's been quite easy to see over the last decade or so though that much of that has changed. It seems now that you can pretty much get away with anything on television. From full-on sex scenes and nudity, to people having their faces ripped open or being raped in a back alley, the limits of what can be shown on television have been pushed. I'm not sure why this happened, or how (if you look at the rest of our society, we have become more politically correct in every other area), but seeing as how I'm a sick and twisted individual, I'm definitely glad it happened. So, on that note, get your puke bibs ready, kids. Here are six brutal television scenes that will definitely leave you shocked. 1) Tub Full Of Guts - Breaking Bad I realize there are probably about 30 moments that I could pick from Breaking Bad alone, but this scene was something straight out of a horror movie. In season one, Walt and Jesse decide to melt down the body of someone they've killed. Of course, they don't realize that the caustic chemicals they are using to eat up the body in the tub are also eating up the tub itself. Flash forward to Jesse and Walter talking in the hallway, when suddenly the tub on the second floor breaks through and 150 pounds of human sludge and guts fall to the floor, mere feet in front of them. While the scene itself may have had some Abbott and Costello humor to it (oh man, what do we do now?), let us not forget they had just melted a human body of the man they murdered into sludge, which they then have to clean up. Gang Rape - Sons Of Anarchy I know Sons of Anarchy is another show that just LOVES to push the envelope when it comes to what they can get away with. I also know that I could have made this entire list with scenes from Kurt Sutter's twisted series alone. But as much as the tongue cut and a few of the other deaths have really stood out, nothing compared to the shock of when Peg Bundy gets raped by the "Nazi Rollins Band." Rape is one of those things that is taboo for a valid reason. And that's because it is the most awful shit, ever. As much as faces getting sliced off makes me laugh, and tubs full of guts makes me shudder and then laugh, rape just makes me cringe. Also, keep in mind, this was shown FX, not HBO. Plus, it's a strong female character being brutalized here. Very difficult stuff to watch indeed, and pretty shocking that they were able to show it on FX, too. Coat Hanger Abortion - American Horror Story: Asylum I know American Horror Story (much like it creator's predecessor, Nip/Tuck) truly got off on showing extremely messed up shit on TV, but little can compare to a woman in an insane asylum giving herself an abortion with a coat hanger. Even movies don't show that shit (usually). Yet here, we clearly see a shot of this woman with a twisted hanger jammed inside of her as she shimmies and twists it. While all of season two felt like one giant shark jump (aliens, zombies, and Nazis, oh my), the abortion was little too much, even for those of us who like twisted shit. Once TV starts causally throwing around abortions and rapes, you know you're treading in dangerous territory. Stay classy, American Horror Story. Stay classy. Spartacus Cuts Guy's Face Off - Spartacus Though face removal has been somewhat of a running theme on Spartacus, I would be lying if I were to say the moment where our titular hero cut off Sedullus' face didn't shock me. Talk about brutal scenes on television! The simple fact that the whole fight around them stops as the brains slowly slither out of the skull is the touch that takes it over the edge. We all know that Game of Thrones likes to be shocking and violent, but I don't think that even they have ever upped this death. Hell, even the CG work on it is nicely done. I guess the subtitle of Blood in the Sand exists on this show for a reason (it's probably because Blood and Brains in the Sand was too long a subtitle). Human Mural - Hannibal I ask you, is there a more violent or shocking show that has ever been on mainstream network TV than Hannibal? Part of me thinks not. I had to sit down and whittle down so many moments from this sick (and really good) series just to find the one that stood out most to me. While the human cello almost won, as did the guy who flays the people into angels using the skin on their back to make wings, the human mural takes the case because of the basic idea of being the survivor who wakes up sewn into that thing is incomprehensible. I have had many discussions with many people about this, and we have no idea how Hannibal gets away with what it does. The fact that it is well written and fits into the mythos of that already established universe helps, but the stuff they get away with is quite literally, insane. This particular scene, when a character on the show wakes up to find out he has been sewn into a human mural, was about as freaky as television can get. It wasn't the gore that did it, as the show has had much gorier moments. Rather, it was the sheer concept and execution of it. Well played, NBC. I have no idea how you get away with this stuff, but I am curious to see just how much further you can take things before getting cancelled. I bet the moment that will do it is when something insane, like a man falling out of the stomach of a dead horse, is shown. Oh wait, that already happened. Hershel Gets Ahead - The Walking Dead Okay, so The Walking Dead is another show that's all about pushing boundaries and buttons. This moment takes the cake though because we ALL liked Hershel. He was pretty much the one voice of reason as Rick was beginning to lose his mind and talk to his dead wife on a broken phone and shit. He is also the one person that just seemed legit. At no point did any of us worry that Hershel was suddenly gonna turn and kill one of his daughters or something. He was very much the patriarch of the group. As we all know though, on a show like this, when a character gets that well loved, you know that goodbye time is close by. Regardless of the fact that we could sense it coming, when the Governor buried his machete into the neck of Hershel, then hacked away at it until it lobbed to the ground, well, that was tough to watch. The scene was made even more brutal by the fact that his two young daughters were watching it happen, too. Truth is, everyone at the camp who loved Hershel up to that point was forced to watch it. While it may have kicked off a pretty epic final prison battle, it was still a violent and jarring death for one of the only characters on that show everyone liked. It was like watching Santa get his head hacked off or something. It just didn't feel right. But shit, it made for some damn good TV. Brutal, but still damn good.